Hint Fiction, and other Good Stuff

I am alive. I thought I'd post more regularly once the new year came in but I've been banging my head a bit trying to get these two reference articles done. Every project I do takes much longer than I think at first it should take. Lana tells me I'm a perfectionist, and maybe I am, though it doesn't often feel that way. Anyway, here are some updates on what I've been reading and listening to. Some of these are well overdue.

1. First, there's a nice review of Hint Fiction up online today, and it even mentions my story. I'm happy about that. It's over at Wilson Knut's blog if you'd care to have a gander.

2. I posted my review of Discount Noir a bit ago, but I'm remiss in not posting my review of Mark Durfee's The Line Between. I gave both works five stars. In a nutshell, here's what I said about The Line Between on Goodreads:

“An excellent collection of poetry from a Detroit poet. Similar in many ways to his previous collection, "Stink." A range of poetry, mostly hard edged, and with a tinge of righteous anger overlying much of it. A good mixture of short and longer poems. I greatly enjoyed.” I’ll only add that Mark is a helluva poet with some important things to say.

3. I can't remember if I reviewed JR's book here, Adopted Behaviors, but I also gave it five stars and here's what I said on Goodreads.

“I don't have a bookshelf for Tomlinson's type of work. I'd consider it to be general literary fiction, but there is also some memoir in this collection. This is a 52 page booklet carrying the subheading of "Flash Memoir, Short Stories, & Flash Fiction."

I don't actually read a lot of literary fiction so I'm not the specific target audience for this work. I enjoyed this collection, however. Tomlinson draws vivid portraits of his characters and puts them into brutal but realistic settings. The characters certainly have the feel of realism about them, which means there aren't any clear cut heroes in Tomlinson's stories, nor many clear cut villains. Tomlinson himself has been a teacher in the prison system in Michigan for many years and the events and experiences he describes in his tales have the unmistakable ring of authenticity.”

4. I've also been remiss in reviewing a great new metal CD that I actually won in a contest over at Jodi MacArthur's blog. It's by a band called A Pale Horse Named Death. I'd call it melodic metal, but don’t take that to mean wimpy. It’s dark and heavy, but with a lot of polish and professionalism in both the licks and the lyrics. The band members have been around. I know a couple of them were in Type O Negative, which I’ve only lately started catching up with. If you check out the website link I’ve provided you can listen to a few songs off the CD to see what you think.



That’s all for now. I suppose that’s enough.
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The Walking Dead, and Friends

I watched the premier of AMCs new series The Walking Dead last night and was quite taken with it. A sheriff’s deputy is shot in the line of duty, then wakes up in a hospital after the zombie plague has swept through. He finds a lot of dead bodies, some half eaten, and soon comes upon a zombie who is missing her bottom half. That really teaches him that something has changed in his world. He finds a few other normals eventually, though, and learns that Atlanta is supposed to be a haven for the living. He goes there, and you can probably guess what happens. I believe this is supposed to come on every Sunday night and I’m going to make a concerted effort to catch it. I can’t say that about many new series. Let me say, though, that it's pretty graphic if you are squeamish.

Something else I did over the weekend is add a new shelf called “Friendsbooks” to Goodreads. I was amazed when I found 168 books on that shelf. I have 50 to 60 other books by friends on my TBR piles. My friends appear to be a prolific bunch. If you are my friend and have written a book, but you’re wondering why I have not read it or perhaps not purchased it, let me give you some possible reasons.

First, some of my friends write erotica and I almost never read erotica. I have only 4 out of 3363 books on my Goodreads shelves that are erotica. Two of those are by friends and are short. I don’t mind having erotic elements or sexual elements in my fiction, but if the ‘primary’ purpose of the work is the erotic elements then I probably won’t be strongly attracted to it. Second, I loved YA fiction when I was young but only rarely read it now, especially if it is targeted at “tweens.” I just generally don’t have anything in common with the characters. However, except for Harry Potter, every YA work I’ve read in the past few years has been by friends.

Third, I hardly ever read straight mystery, although I read noir fiction and some historical mysteries. Fourth, I hardly ever read mainstream fiction, and when I read literary fiction it's most often older material that I feel I ought to read, like Moby Dick or The Metamorphosis. Fifth, I hardly ever read romance. I don’t even have a category for that since the only romance fiction I’ve ever read would also count as historical fiction. Sixth, I very rarely read paranormal or urban fantasy. I respect the writers of erotica, YA, mystery, romance, urban fantasy, and mainstream/literary fiction, but as a reader I tend not to automatically pick up such books to read myself. I do have quite a few such books on my shelves from friends, and I probably will read them eventually.

What do I read, you ask? That list is longer than what I don’t read. Science fiction, fantasy, magic realism/surrealism, horror, thriller, westerns, science, works on writing, animals and nature, astronomy and physics, psychology, poetry, noir, pulp-oriented, military, history, historical fiction, football, and animal fiction.

Finally, today is official release date for Hint Fiction. It even got a good review in the New Yorker, so if you’d like a copy, a link is below.

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Politics and Religion in Writing

I sold a story in 1995 called "Crypto," and I was looking at it yesterday with the idea that I might try to sell it as a reprint. But there's a problem. That problem is politics and religion.

The story is meant to be humorous, but in making its jokes it pokes fun at political correctness and at televangelists. It also picks on congress. I was careful with the “congress” jokes to not attack one particular party, but the televangelist jokes could possibly be seen as attacking the more fundamentalist types of religion. And in today’s cultural climate, people seem to be unusually rabid in responding to even the hint of an attack on their politics or religion. Even when the story was first published a couple of readers reviewed it negatively because they took it to have an “agenda.” Honestly, there was no agenda, just an attempt at some jokes. In fact, I was completely surprised that anyone would have thought I had an agenda, although in retrospect I’m surprised that I was surprised.

I have a friend who got into trouble with some readers for her “agenda,” even though it was a “character” in her book that expressed some anti-government sentiment. I at least thought readers would not take everything the characters say or think as evidence of the writer’s beliefs. I was wrong. And in “Crypto,” the jokes (or insults) come through the narrative, which is easier to attribute to the writer’s personal feelings.

In the end, I decided that “Crypto” is going to become a trunk story. I’m going to put it away for now because I know that one reader who feels attacked is very likely to share that feeling with other readers. That outcome might not be good.

How about you? Do you avoid issues of politics and religion in your writing? In your everyday discussions? Does it turn you off if what you’re reading expresses a different perspective on politics and religion from your own? I’m curious.

Finally, in other news, Robert Swartwood is hosting an “Ultimate Flash Fiction Package,” in which you will have a chance to win 120 bucks worth of books. Check it out here.
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Publications and Sales and Sech

I’m excited to announce that Hint Fiction is currently available for preorder on Barnes & Noble and Amazon. I got my contributor copy of the book a couple of days ago and have already read it. It’s a wonderful collection and I’m very happy to be a part of it. I almost couldn’t believe how well many of the pieces worked as both standalone efforts and to suggest or “hint” at a much bigger story behind the scenes. The work starts out with a dynamite piece from Joe Lansdale, probably my favorite in the collection, but there are many more great pieces and for the first time I really saw the potential of the hint fiction concept realized. I feel pretty lucky to have made it into this group.

Among the bigger names in the collection are Jack Ketchum, Joyce Carol Oates, Peter Straub, and F. Paul Wilson, but the selections from unknowns and relative unknowns are just as powerful. I got lots of smiles and quite a few “winces” out of these pieces. They were just amazingly effective.

In other news, I’ve gotten in some author copies of Bitter Steel finally. If anyone should want a signed copy, I can offer them at a discount over what the unsigned book costs at Amazon and Barnes & Noble at present. I’m asking $12.50, and I’ll cover shipping within the US. For Canada or elsewhere I might have to split the costs with you. If you’d like a copy, please email me at kainja at hotmail dot com.

I also have one copy of Swords of Talera in which the red color of the cover is worn through in places. It’s not bad, but if anyone wants it I can let it go for $5.00, plus whatever the shipping would be. Same email if you are interested.

Finally, I just finished reading Ty Johnston’s Kindle collection American Crossroads, which puts together five stories about people reaching turning points in their lives. I enjoyed it very much and reviewed it on both Goodreads and Amazon. I highly recommend it. It’s worth much more than the .99 cents it costs.

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Louisiana Book Fest II: And Hint Fiction

First, I was very happy to learn that one of my pieces was chosen by Robert Swartwood for the “Hint Fiction” anthology. Some of you might recall that I mentioned this anthology previously on my blog here. I’m tickled to be included, and with such names as Peter Straub, Jack Ketchum, Joe Lansdale, F. Paul Wilson, and Joyce Carol Oates included, as well as talented but-not-yet-quite-so-famous writers such as our own Kathleen A. Ryan, I feel in pretty good company. Check out Robert Swartwood’s blog for more information.

As for the Louisiana Book Festival, Lana and I had a great time. We went up on Friday evening for the opening party, which was held at the State Library and offered a variety of wonderful foods, including delicious fried catfish, shrimp, and a chocolate fountain that Lana was very appreciative of.

My talk on Saturday morning went well. I only had about 8 folks in the audience, 6 of whom were teen aged girls. I wondered if they had been mislead by the title of my talk, about “Witch” of Talera. But they were attentive and took notes, and a couple of them even asked questions at the end so that was nice. I then had my signing at the Barnes & Noble tent and they had plenty of copies of my books. I was not the busiest author there but most folks signing didn’t have a lot of people vying for their books. I did sign some for the store as well.

After that, Lana and I wandered around. She took many, many pictures, of which I will feature a few here. The Capitol grounds are quite lovely and the building itself is amazing. There were a lot of cool booths and some very fine Zydeco music. There were a few couple dancing and that was quite entertaining as well. Naturally, I bought a few books.

When I finally did get home it was to find that Arkansas was giving Florida all they could handle in football. In fact, Arkansas should have won that game. Our kicker missed two field goals. Florida won by three points. There was also a couple of horrible penalties against Arkansas on one Florida drive that helped them score a touchdown to tie the game against the Razorbacks. As you can imagine, I was doing some serious ranting at the TV.

I started to load some of the pics but blogger doesn't seem to be cooperating so I'm going to post this and then try to upload more pics later!

Hint Fiction, and Other Items

I learned of an interesting anthology opportunity over on Women of Mystery for what is called “Hint Fiction.” The definition, as given on Robert Swartwood’s blog, is: “hint fiction (n) : a story of 25 words or less that suggests a larger, more complex story.” Mr. Swartwood coined the term.

In 2010, it appears that W. W. Norton will publish an anthology of hint fiction and they are currently looking for submissions. You can find out all about it over on Robert Swartwood’s page.

I decided to send a few items in. I went back through various stories or novels that I’ve started but not continued and culled out what I thought were the most interesting openings. Then I added a dash of editing to get them down to the 25 word limit and try to make them fit the hint fiction concept. Below are some of the ones that didn’t make the cut for me to submit.

Hint Fictions?

The boy looked up to see dust approaching the ferry. Within the dust was a horse, on the horse a rider, all turned to gray.

During the day she cried. Long and hard by herself. And outside the grey wind blew chilled and lonely. She had so much to give.

Swiftly, along dirt roads and through fields of yellow grain, the dry leaves and dust fled, running from the evening storm that stalked behind them.

He stood in the hiss of the rain and the lyre winds, eyes smoky dark like burnt glass. His lips moved with prayers.

On the first day of the month of Harps, he had not returned. And on the second the wind blew black with dust.

You see them occasionally in your home town. They are always passing through. The fangs in their eyes give them away.

Predators seldom stalk predators. But when it happens…

REVISED - 8-2-09:

Also, three more of my blog colleagues have posted very nice things about Write With Fire and have even spoken highly of me. And I didn’t even pay them. If you get a chance check out:

1. Travis’s Tuesday, July 28th post over at his blog.

2. C. S. Harris’s commentary on her blog.

3. Greg Schwartz, who I had made a note to myself to add to this list and then somehow let his post slip my mind, also commented on the book and offers some other interesting info over on his blog.

Of course, Lana has been her usual supportive self, and has some good news of her own to share at her blog.

Thanks Trav and Candy and Lana. And thanks Greg. Sorry I missed that link first time around. And thanks to everyone who has already mentioned the book. Much appreciated.
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